'Southern Charm's Kathryn Dennis and Patricia Altschul Dish on Their Unlikely Bond and Season 6 (Exclusive)

Thelma and Louise, Laverne and Shirley… Patricia and Kathryn?!

They’re the unlikely duo no one predicted becoming besties, yet here we are. Once sworn enemies, Southern Charm stars Patricia Altschul and Kathryn Dennis are now best buddies.

"We’re friends, close friends," Patricia admits to ET, cuddled up next to Kathryn on a couch in her living room. Only ET sat down with the ladies at Patricia’s home in Charleston, South Carolina, for the pair’s first joint interview, something even they never saw coming.

"That’s kind of the beauty of life," Patricia, 78, notes. "You can never predict what’s going to happen."

"A lot of progress has been made, in my life and I think overall, in my relationships with everyone," Kathryn, 26, shares. "I feel like Patricia has really played like, I don’t know, a good role model for me. I needed, I don’t really know how to describe it, a good… not a mother figure, but I look up to you."

"Because of the age difference, that’s not unreasonable," Patricia offers.

After five years of cross words behind each other’s backs, the women finally came face to face on Southern Charm’s season five finale, after Pat invited Kathryn to her "Winter Wonderland" ball. From there, a friendship was born, with regular dinner dates and meet-ups in Los Angeles.

"I feel like for a while, I was more or less reacting with life, rather than interacting with my own life," Kathryn says. "We didn’t really talk about anything. We just talked about each other with other people, so there’s no real chance for resolving, but we got to a point where, I don’t know, we kind of like each other, turns out."

Patricia is quick to note that all of her problems with Kathryn have turned out to be problems with Kathryn’s ex, Thomas Ravenel. The one-time politician is no longer a cast member on the show. He exited the series before the season five reunion taping, after a series of sexual misconduct allegations came out against him, all of which Thomas has denied. Thomas was also arrested and charged with assault and battery in September and is currently awaiting trial.

"I would say that a lot of my problems really go back to Thomas, because he was very convincing and telling me things about Kathryn, and we didn’t really have any open communication," Patricia confesses. "But, last season the kids all would tell me what [Kathryn was] doing, and I watched the show. I learned a lot from watching the show."

"I think Kathryn has always been this Kathryn," she continues. "But there were bumps in the road, shall we say."

While Thomas is no longer on the show, he is still a big part of it, seeing as he and Kathryn share two children together, 5-year-old Kensie and 3-year-old Saint. Viewers will likely see less of the kiddos on screen in season six due to that fact that Thomas is currently suing Bravo and the production company behind Southern Charm, asking them to refrain from broadcasting unaired footage of the kids. As part of his filing, Thomas claims producers instructed Kathryn to go after full custody of Kensie and Saint to stir up drama for season six. Bravo has asked the suit be dismissed, as it was filed as part of Thomas and Kathryn's custody battle. The pair’s custody agreement is still "in progress," according to Kathryn, who denies Thomas' allegations.

"Well, as you know, I have no problem giving my opinion on anything whether anybody asks me or not," Patricia starts when asked about Thomas. "But I cannot say anything about Thomas, because he served me with papers. I’m subpoenaed, so you won’t get anything from me."

"I'm quite numb to it," Kathryn says of the drama surrounding her relationship with her children’s father. "Nothing surprises me, and it’s unfortunate that negative things happen and they’re talked about, but it’s a part of my life at this point. So I keep living in my bubble and move on."

While Thomas won’t make any appearances on season six, Patricia promises it won’t be boring, teasing a "reckoning" is coming for some cast members. That might include Thomas' off-again, on-again girlfriend, Ashley Jacobs. She pops up a couple of times this year, much to Kathryn and Patricia’s dismay. In the season trailer, Ashley is seen confronting Patricia at what looks to be the big finale party, telling her, “Patricia, the truth will come out!” Kathryn says Ashley is "obsessed" with Pat.

"She made no bones about it, she was coming for me," Patricia notes. "In fact, I think the words were 'gunning,' she was gunning for me. So, as we know, I don’t put up with any drama or misbehavior if I can help it."

"Let’s just say, I am happy with the end result of Ashley Jacobs," Patricia continues to tease. "I think people that have problems with her, it’s going to be cathartic. The show is going to be cathartic, they’re going to like it. Some people on Instagram are like, 'Well, I am not going to watch the show if she’s on there.' But, it’s a mistake, because you will love the result. That’s all I’ll say."

"I think that nature takes its course with humans like her…" Kathryn adds before Patricia cuts her off to ask, "Humans?!"

"Human, that’s what I reference her as, because… [well,] she’s not a real person in ways," Kathryn replies. "But, I mean, she self-destructs and that’s what nature does, I guess. It’s hard to come up with words to talk about her because she doesn’t make sense herself."

As it stands now, Kathryn says she’s not sure if Thomas and Ashley are an item, and they might not know, either. The women say it’s unclear if Ashley is even living in Charleston at the moment, though Kathryn has asked for a restraint against Ashley in her most recent custody filing, asking that Ashley not have any contact with Kensie and Saint.

"Let me tell you what somebody told me, they ran into Thomas, I think this was last week, they said, 'Are you still with that woman?'" Patricia asserts. "And he said, 'Well, yeah. Who else am I going to get?'"

Kathryn claims Thomas has told her that before, too, which is difficult for her to hear because she says she still cares for him. But, she has no interest in getting back together with him.

"I feel like, I don’t know him," she says. "It’s kind of crazy, it’s weird … I don’t think he’ll ever [change]. I hope, one day maybe. But I have been hoping for a long time."

For now, Kathryn is focused on her own life. She’s dating musician Hunter Price, has launched a children’s furniture company and finally found her footing in the friend group at the heart of Southern Charm.

"I am able to be myself and not be attached to anyone else and referenced as someone’s girlfriend, 'baby mama,'" she says. "It’s just me being me, in my life. I’m excited that people just get to see that side of me. Finally getting back to myself."

Part of that "getting back to myself" might be a return to some of the Kathryn viewers met in season one. A hot topic on the premiere is whether Kathryn and Patricia’s son, Whitney Sudler-Smith, hooked up again.

"Here, let me answer this, honey," Patricia jumps in. "This is what Whitney told me, he said, 'I love Kathryn, we’re good friends, but a southern gentleman would never discuss what he does with a lady.'"

"You’re talking about consenting adults," she adds. "So, who cares? My question is, who cares?"

While it seems unlikely that things between Kathryn and Whitney would move beyond a hookup, Patricia admits she would "love" to have Kathryn as a daughter-in-law, and Kathryn, Patricia as her mother-in-law.

"We wear the same size shoe," Kathryn jokes. "So, just saying."

Southern Charm’s new season premieres Wednesday, May 15, at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo, and stick with ET for more from the cast in the coming weeks.

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